Sacrifice
by Shadow Rise
Summary: Oneshot. HBP spoilers! Goes with 'A Darker...' and 'A Lighter...'. Ever wonder why T.J.'s parents gave her up?


_Sacrifice_

_By Shadow Rise_

Melissa Willa Black was no fool. She knew that her life was nothing to be proud of. Especially with her choice in men. But she also was not naïve in thinking that her husband was nothing but a prejudiced, pigheaded bastard like his ancestors. She knew that Regulus and Sirius Black both were cut from a different sort of Black cloth.

Regulus had only been trying to make his family proud, trying to restore the honor that Sirius had dulled with the desertion of his family. Regulus thought that it would be easy, he would support this Voldemort bloke and join the little club. Of course, he hadn't thought about the Initiation.

In truth, Melissa did not blame her husband at all for his decision. She supposed she may have done the same in his situation… But it still hurt so much.

Regulus had come home the night he found out about the things he had to do to support his mother's Lord shaking and pale. Melissa had been so scared of the Dark Lord and his followers that night.

"You cannot join them, Regulus." she had murmured, holding the man she loved close to her with her daughter in her arms, "He's so very horrible… Think of what he would do to this world."

He had not had much comfort to give his wife then, but he thought of a plan that night. It made both of them hurt very much to think of the consequences that could come of it, but still they plotted.

Regulus would steal the Horcrux locket of Voldemort and destroy it. Melissa, for fear of what that creature would do if ever he found little Taylor, said that she would leave their daughter on the steps of a muggle orphanage because Voldemort would surely find her in a magical one. Regulus would destroy that locket the moment he could.

And so, here the two parents stood, staring down at the beautiful sleeping bundle that was Taylor Renata Black. _No, _Melissa thought sadly, _now she is Taylor James Greemhorn. She is not my precious little girl any longer. Because soon, when Regulus denies the Dark Lord, she will be an orphan._

The man wrapped an arm around his shaking wife's shoulders, pulling her in and hugging her.

"Do not worry my love," he whispered looking at his dark-haired daughter, "the supposedly Dark Lord will pay for everything he has forced upon our world."

"And what about Taylor?" she demanded, tears falling angrily as she pushed away to look at her husband, "Will she be forced by **us** to go through life alone because we could not protect her?"

"Would you rather her not go through life at all?" he snapped, eyes burning with loathing. But this loathing was not for his Melissa, but for his "Master."

"No-"

"Mel, I hate this as much as you do, but you know this is for the best." he said, softening, "I wish I had never have been so stupid as to try to get involved with Bellatrix's Master, but I was and I am sorry… Mel, I'm so sorry."

She watched in awed silence as Regulus got down upon his knees and clasped her hands in his own.

"I swear to you, my beloved Melissa, in this promise of eternity, that Lord Voldemort _will_ met his match one day. And when he does, my love, I will be watching as he falls by the other's hand."

Melissa flung her arms around her husband and cried. She cried all that night as they left their child on the steps of that orphanage. She cried as they arrived home. She cried all into the night as she slept. But that next evening, when her husband brewed acid in his cauldron and dropped the locket into it, when a little part of Voldemort's soul died, she smiled a grim smile and raised her head high.

"Voldemort will fall." she stated with that same grim smile, staring through the mask of the Death Eater before her and into his icy blue-gray eyes, "And you will also, Lucius."

"_Avada Kedavra!_"

_**To the Dark Lord**_

_**I know I will be dead long before you read this**_

_**but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret.**_

_**I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can.**_

_**I face death in the hope that when you meet your match,**_

_**you will be mortal once more.**_

_**R.A.B.**_


End file.
